Description

Winner of the US National Book Award 2012
‘A powerful novel’ New York Times
‘An extraordinary, engrossing novel, which should live long in the memory’ Independent on Sunday

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. As Geraldine slips into an abyss of solitude, young Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to find some answers of his own.

The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece — at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender novel of family, history, and culture by one of the most revered novelists of our time.

Publisher Review

A young man grapples with his mother's rape in a most unexpected, powerful and haunting coming of age story. * Roxane Gay, Esquire - 80 Books Every Person Should Read * Steeped in American folklore, rituals and tradition, Erdrich's rite-of-passage masterpiece is raw and compelling. * Good Book Guide * A gripping mystery with a moral twist: revenge might be the harshest punishment, but only for the victims. * Entertainment Weekly * The Round House is filled with stunning language that recalls shades of Faulkner, Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison. Deeply moving, this novel ranks among Erdrich's best work, and it is impossible to forget. * USA Today * Brilliant. * Saga * Erdrich threads a gripping mystery and multilayered portrait of a community through a deeply affecting coming-of-age novel. * O, the Oprah Magazine * Erdrich is brilliant at using dialogue to capture the teenage psyche....The parallels with To Kill a Mockingbird are obvious, but it is the soundtrack to Rob Reiner's classic coming-of-age film Stand by Me that spooled through my mind as I followed Joe and his mates through their long, hot, life-changing summer. * The Economist * A powerful novel worth reading. * The Scotsman * Emotionally compelling...Joe is an incredibly endearing narrator, full of urgency and radiant candor...the story he tells transforms a sad, isolated crime into a revelation about how maturity alters our relationship with our parents, delivering us into new kinds of love and pain. * Washington Post * Detailed and nuanced, it is Erdrich's portrayal of the Native American reservation that makes The Round House stand out as a work of literary fiction. * Sunday Express * Echoes of Stand By Me ... a classic coming-of-age narrative. * The Observer * A compelling coming-of-age story ... [Erdrich] is a gifted storyteller who brings all these characters and tales together with sureness and grace. * Indpendent * A rare insight into the dilemma of an adolescent caught between two cultures. * Mail on Sunday * Erdrich has achieved an impressive trick; a spellbinding read, an earnest message and fierce emotional punch. * Sunday Telegraph * The Round House showcases [Erdrich's] extraordinary ability to delineate the ties of love, resentment, need, duty and sympathy that bind families together...[a] powerful novel. * New York Times * The Round House is an extraordinary, engrossing novel, which should live long in the memory. * The Independent on Sunday *